‘Bogus £40bn black hole’ and ‘Tuchel takes hotseat’

On Thursday the papers have plenty of predictions, reports and speculation about the Budget. The Times says the chancellor will raise capital gains tax – but only on the sale of shares and other assets, not on second homes. It reports the current 20% paid by higher rate taxpayers is likely to rise by “several percentage points”, with a government source predicting the revenue it will bring in will be in the “low billions”. The Daily Telegraph says the bulk of the measures announced by Rachel Reeves will be tax rises, rather than spending cuts. It describes her plans as the “biggest Budget tax raid in history”. Both papers note that the prime minister has faced a backlash from Cabinet colleagues, including Angela Rayner, after departments were asked to draw up plans for “huge cuts”. The Telegraph quotes a Downing Street spokesman saying such exchanges are “a standard part of the process”.

The Daily Express says Labour have “spun a yarn” about needing to raise £40 billion, and that Rachel Reeves is making political decisions about whom to reward and whom to punish. It says she’s been accused of producing a “bogus” figure in order to justify “hammering taxpayers”. The Daily Mail reports that a leading business group has said hiking national insurance could be “Labour’s poll tax”. The party has insisted that increasing employer contributions would not break a manifesto pledge – but the Institute of Directors has called the plan a “bad idea”, and said it would hit jobs and wages.

The Guardian says counter-terrorism police are investigating whether Russian spies planted an incendiary device in a parcel which caught fire at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham in July. Nobody was hurt, and it’s not clear which plane brought it to the UK. But the paper says police are examining links to a similar incident in Germany. The Telegraph says the device could have caused a plane to crash, if it had caught fire mid-air, and that Moscow is suspected of being behind it.

The front page headline in The Daily Mirror says the row surrounding the BBC comedy Mrs Brown’s Boys is now “beyond a joke”. It says a black member of the crew resigned after the actor, Brendan O’Carroll, made a racial joke – but that the star escaped with a final warning. A source tells the paper the situation is “messed up”. The Corporation says it takes the matter extremely seriously, and that Brendan O’Carroll “is under no illusion” about that.

The papers get a second chance to comment on Thomas Tuchel, after the German was unveiled by the FA as the new manager of the England men’s football team. The Sun says he is out to end “60 years of hurt” for fans who long to win the World Cup. The paper describes him as “ruthless, demanding, humourless – just what England need”. The Mirror says that if he brings home the World Cup, he will be an English hero – adding: “Winning, not nationality, is how a football coach deserves to be judged.”